Point of Freedom (Nordic Lords MC #3)

by Stacey Lynn

  “Yeah.” I ran my hand through my freshly highlighted hair—thanks to Cassie—and shrugged. “I can’t believe I turned it down, though.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “You did? But you’ve wanted this.”

  My hand dropped to my neck, rubbing the back. “I know, but I guess things have changed a bit.”

  And there was no way I’d be able to keep the job once the school figured out I was involved with Jaden, and close with the Nordic Lords. My initial relationship with them had prevented me from getting the job in the first place.

  But besides Jaden, other things had changed, too. I liked the salon—although what girl wouldn’t love free haircuts, highlights, manicures and pedicures? I also really liked working with the sisters, not to mention the flexibility they gave me with Sophie and needing time off. They’d been there for me when she was taken. No way would that have flown had it happened if I’d been in the middle of a school day. I’d be handed my pink slip faster than I could blink.

  My stomach felt unsettled from knowing I just turned down a job based on a guy who’d only that morning told me he wanted me, wanted us to try whatever it was we were doing—but hell, I couldn’t stop my reaction or my craving to be with Jaden at this point even if I tried.

  I also didn’t want to try to stay away from him.

  “Anyway,” I said, pushing away thoughts of Jaden and the club and the job opportunity I’d wanted and just turned away. “Liv and Faith are taking me out tonight. When you close up shop tonight you can join us if you want.”

  Cammie blinked and looked around the salon nervously. I frowned, watching her odd reaction. “Oh, thanks. Maybe we will later.”

  She turned on her hot pink high heels and walked away.

  I brushed it off as a client came up. After ringing her out, I smiled when Faith sauntered into the salon, black purse slung over her shoulder, black hair falling straight down her back, and a giant smile stretched wide across her face.

  “Let’s get your party started!”

  I shook my head, laughing. “Tell me you’re not planning something.”

  Faith reached the counter and leaned in, carefree mischief written all over her face. I grinned, because God—she’d been through hell, and by the look on her face, you’d never guess it.

  “You didn’t honestly think we’d forget your birthday, did you?”

  More like hoping. It’d been the last thing on my mind for weeks, and with all the drama happening in my life, I’d completely pushed it aside.

  “Forget? No… just figured it wasn’t important, given everything else going on.”

  “Ah.” She pushed off the counter, slapping her hands down on it. “But see—that’s where you’re wrong. Because what I’ve learned—and what Liv was so quick to teach me herself—is that when the shit hits the fan, the best thing you can do is party it off and remind yourself to enjoy life as long as you can—and as much as you can.”

  Who could argue with that?

  “All right, where is Liv anyway?” I grabbed my purse and met Faith on the other side of the counter.

  “She, um, had something come up at the garage, so we’re picking her up there.”

  “See you girls later?” I called out to the triplets, all busy with clients in their chairs. Bella Salon was packed all day long, which only had me smiling as they turned to me in unison.

  Callie pulled a comb out of her lips. “We’ll do our best!”

  “Come on,” Faith said, tugging my hand until we were outside. “We’ve got partying to do.”

  Blaring rock music rattled my eardrums as we climbed out of Ryker’s truck at the clubhouse. I turned my head toward the outside grass area, mostly hidden behind the garage.

  “What’s going on over there?” I asked Faith as she met me at the front of the truck.

  All the lights in the garage were off, the doors pulled closed as if everyone had closed up shop early for the day and started their partying earlier than normal.

  Faith threw an arm over my shoulder. “With these men? Who knows? Let’s go find Liv.”

  I was dragged along by Faith’s quick-moving legs until we hit the back corner of the garage and my eyes flew wide open.

  “Oh my gosh,” I muttered, my fingers covering my dropped jaw. My gaze snapped to Faith’s. “You did this?”

  She grinned and pulled me further into the yard, which was all decked out in birthday decorations. A huge banner hung across a tent that had been set up and an outside bar, completely packed with Nordic Lords standing around and helping themselves to what looked like enough alcohol to keep a small country drunk for a decades. Bottles and tapped kegs were everywhere.

  Plastic cups already littered the ground like one of the few college frat parties I’d attended years ago. But these weren’t preppy frat boys in designer shirts, partying on their parents’ dime.

  From the corner of my eye, I caught Liv standing off to the side, smiling and animatedly talking to a very unhappy Daemon.

  I snorted, a grin beginning to stretch wide on my lips, knowing girly decorations splattering his yard were probably not making him happy.

  “Jules!” she shrieked when she saw us, turned her back on Daemon, and came running across the yard, throwing her arms around me. “Happy Birthday!”

  I untangled myself from Faith and wrapped my arms around Liv. “You’re crazy.”

  “I know!” she shouted in my ear and pulled back. “Hey!” She turned around, one arm still wrapped around my shoulder, and pulled me toward the center of the yard. “I didn’t spend all freaking day decorating this damn place and filling it with liquor for you jerks to ignore the birthday girl.”

  Her loud shouts echoed through the yard, and on cue, every man and woman in attendance turned to me, their glasses raised high.

  My eyes scanned the yard, feeling heat blossom on my cheeks when I didn’t see Jaden at first.

  All the men cheered, did their best to try to at least act like they gave a shit for a reason to party, but when their half-hearted attempt made Liv frown, I didn’t mind.

  “Where’s Sophie?” I asked, still scanning the crowd, not seeing her anywhere. Or Jaden. A small ball of disappointment began growing in my gut, but then disappeared as quickly as it showed up when a few men parted the circle they were standing in and I saw Sophie, propped on Jaden’s hip, both of them smiling at me…

  With my parents?

  My eyeballs almost popped out of my head as they began heading my way.

  “How in the heck did you manage this?” I asked Liv, shock making my words disjointed.

  She nudged my hip and let me go. “Just asked them to stay until you got here, that’s all.”

  “Wow.”

  My pulse increased and my hands became sweaty as I met my parents—Jaden with Sophie still propped on his hip, looking oddly pleased with himself and sexy as hell holding my daughter—in the middle the yard.

  I hesitated to look around, but I felt dozens of eyes on all of us. My two worlds colliding left me breathless as my mom reached out and hugged me.

  “Happy birthday,” she whispered in my ear, and then because she couldn’t resist and knew Jaden couldn’t hear her—or perhaps because she knew he could, she continued with her motherly warning: “Be careful.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled before she handed me off to my dad.

  His eyes darted uncomfortably around, seeing the men, before he tugged me into his side and pressed a kiss to my temple. “Not sure how I feel about my girl being involved in all this again.” In contrast to my mom, who tried to hide her disapproval, my dad spoke plain and firm. Across from me, Jaden’s back stiffened and his eyes narrowed on my dad.

  “It’s just a party, Dad,” I said, my hands falling to his stomach as I pushed off him.

  “It’s not a party, it’s a life.” He looked down at me and all his fears for me, swimming in his eyes plain as day, made my breath get caught in my throat. His nose twitched and I felt Jaden behind me before his hand clamp
ed down on my hip. My dad saw Jaden’s hand on me, glared at it as if he was trying to set it on fire, and then raised his eyes to mine.

  “The men in this life got Sophie back to me, and got me free of Rob for good.”

  “Don’t defend us, Jules.”

  I snapped my eyes to Jaden, only to see his hardened stare matching my dad’s intensity. But where my dad’s radiated concern for me and his granddaughter, Jaden’s were alight with something so much more visceral.

  “He knows what kind of men we are.”

  “Already saw you shattered by losing one of them, Jules,” my dad warned, resetting his eyes on me.

  Jaden’s fingers twitched on my hip, but his eyes lost their anger. “Doing my best to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” he drawled. I closed my eyes, exhaling and wishing Liv would have kept my parents out of this.

  A quick glance around the yard told me the rest of the men and their women were watching the mounting tension in the middle of their party—my party—with eagle eyes, ready to step in if needed, but trying to act as if nothing was amiss right in front of them.

  “Yeah? Pretty sure your shitty treatment of her after your brother died was part of what shattered her in the first place.”

  Jaden stepped forward, pulling me with him, and rolled his shoulders. I felt the coiled tension of his back muscles radiating down his spine.

  “Pretty sure that shit’s between Jules and me” he clipped, lips pulled into a thin line.

  “All right,” I said, stepping forward between the two of them. With quick hands, I grabbed Sophie off Jaden’s hip. “Hey, pumpkin.”

  I kissed her cheek, hoping to diffuse the tension bouncing off Jaden and my dad. “Happy Birfday. We got cake!”

  “Yay!” I kissed her again, set her on feet, and patted her butt before my mom scooped her up. “We’ll get some in a minute, okay?”

  She grinned, that perfect smile filled with gaps between her teeth. “Otay!”

  “This isn’t the place,” I whispered to both the men before I turned to my dad. “Thank you for being here. I can come tomorrow for dinner so we can celebrate at home, if you want.”

  My dad shot a glare to Jaden before he sighed, and then his hands cupped my cheeks. His voice was thick and raspy. “Worried about you, baby girl.”

  “I know.” I covered his warm hands with mine. “But I’m good, I swear it.”

  Whatever fight he still had in him, he breathed out on a frustrated exhale and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Be safe.”

  “Will do,” I whispered, fighting tears that stung the backs of my eyes. He was concerned and I appreciated it, but I wouldn’t let him talk about Jaden that way on Jaden’s property. “Have fun with Sophie.”

  He harrumphed, took Sophie from my mom, and headed toward the parking lot.

  I watched him go, watched him carrying Sophie in his arms in a protective way, probably like how he’d always done to me, when I felt my mom’s small, warm hands cup my chin the way my dad had just done.

  “He’s just worried about you,” she whispered to me, smiling sadly. “You know we love you.”

  “I know.” I sniffed, and then felt instantly strengthened when Jaden’s palm pressed against my lower back.

  With a nod of her own, she looked up into what I knew was Jaden’s gaze and let go of me. “Thank you for getting Sophie back, and while I don’t want to know—at all—at how you managed that and taking care of Rob, thank you.”

  She reached out her hand to Jaden, who let go of my back to shake hers. When she had him in her grip, she leaned up on her high-heeled tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

  “Welcome.” Jaden’s gruff voice caught my attention and I looked to him, smiling down at Mom in some oddly soft way. Such a contradiction to the hardness in which he usually carried himself.

  She pulled back and swiped under her eye, muttering something about allergies before she lifted her hand and waved goodbye. “See you tomorrow for dinner?”

  I smiled and waved back. “You bet.”

  She turned, carrying herself in the confident way she always seemed to, and met my dad and Sophie in the parking lot. I stayed rooted to the spot while I watched them strap Sophie into her car seat, climb into her car, and pull out of the parking lot.

  Once they were gone, I felt oxygen leave my lungs. “Well that was fun.”

  Jaden’s arm hooked around my neck and he pulled me to him. “They just care. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.” He looked down at me and scowled. “Mind telling me why you didn’t fuckin’ tell me it was your birthday?”

  I pressed my lips together. “Forgot?”

  He made a harrumph sound similar to one my dad had made and I grinned.

  “Come on,” he said, tugging me toward the makeshift backyard bar. “We’re going to get you wasted, then I’ve got birthday orgasms to deliver on.”

  “Orgasms?” As in plural? I immediately felt my panties grow wet.

  “One for every year,” he said with a smirk.

  My lower stomach instantly exploded into flames.

  Well… hell. Let the partying begin.

  I was swaying somewhere along the line between more-than-tipsy and completely-trashed-off-my-butt, standing in a small circle with Faith, Liv, Marie, and a few other old ladies who had apparently decided to welcome me into the fold.

  The chilled wind whipped through my short-sleeved baby blue top, but I barely felt it due to the beer I’d consumed, which was filling my stomach and warming my blood.

  The night, so far, had been incredible.

  I’d accepted more than my fair share of shots from some of the men, but after I downed the first couple, I started handing them off to Jaden, who rarely left my side unless he was huddled in some corner of the yard, seeming to argue quietly with Daemon.

  I didn’t know what it was about, didn’t want to know what it was about.

  I simply wanted to pretend that my parents’ presence hadn’t rattled me. That their warnings were simply made to their only daughter that they loved like crazy, yet were completely unjustified.

  Standing outside with men and women surrounding a raging bonfire, partying like it was some sort of celebration instead of just my twenty-sixth birthday, it was easy to fool myself into thinking this was just a large, really loud, family party.

  I pushed down the feeling of unease, tried to stay in the midst of the conversations with Faith and Liv as they prattled on about their wedding plans, but knew I was failing miserably when I caught Finn walking toward us.

  I hadn’t had much interaction with him since he’d basically called me a shitty mom for not being with Sophie twenty-four seven. Liv had assured me he had his own issues he was dealing with that made him grouchy and quiet, but I still resented his implication from a few weeks ago.

  So it shocked me when he easily strolled into our circle of women, wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and tugged me to his side.

  “Glad you got your girl back,” he said quietly, squeezing my shoulder. That accent of his made my knees wobble. “And free from that dick.”

  I couldn’t hide my shock. “Even considering you think I’m a shitty mom?”

  The wide, easy smile he seemed to carry with him to hide the weight behind his dark eyes disappeared. “That’s my shit.”

  His hand dropped and I watched the alligator ink on his arm twist and turn with the flex of his tightened muscles.

  I let it go, because I didn’t have a choice when he turned and I watched Gunner approach our small circle. When he reached us, he easily draped his arms around Liv’s and Faith’s shoulders and smiled directly at my chest.

  “How’s the birthday girl?” He arched an eyebrow, which was barely visible due to the guy being completely covered in ink. His short, buzzed, full head of black hair hid the ink I knew covered his scalp, but the only un-inked parts of skin I knew about were around his eyes and the palms of his hands.

  My heart stuttered in my chest, leaving me momentarily sp
eechless. Even in the dark, his impish grin shot a blast of embarrassment to my hardening nipples. I hadn’t seen him since he’d pierced me, and for a moment I lost the shock that Gunner, owner of a tattoo shop, was partying with Nordic Lords.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and Gunner let out a low laugh before raising his eyes to meet mine.

  “Just checking on my work.”

  “Might wanna do it when her man isn’t around, mate.” Finn nodded his head toward Jaden, glaring daggers at our small group from across the yard.

  Catching my eye, I swore I saw the faint hint of a grin on his eyes before he smacked Daemon on the back and headed our way.

  “Nah,” Gunner said easily, “your men need me too much to hate me.”

  His flippant attitude and quick perusal of my chest sent a cold, slithering feeling down my spine.

  “Why are you here?”

  Gunner’s grin widened. “Faith and Liv told me it was your birthday. Didn’t think I’d want to miss this party.”

  “Well, thanks.” I shuffled on my feet, not understanding why I’d always felt okay around Gunner before, but didn’t get the same easy feeling radiating off him that he was trying to project.

  I jumped slightly when I felt a warm arm slide around my shoulder and instantly relaxed into Jaden’s unmistakable strong embrace. “Gunner.”

  Glancing at Jaden, I saw his glare directed at the tattoo master and then dart to his arms, which were still wrapped around Liv and Faith. They didn’t seem to care that he was touching them, but the heat from Jaden’s eyes had Gunner dropping his arms and shoving his hands into his pockets.

  “Not sure whether to kick your ass since you’ve seen my girl’s tits or thank you.”

  Gunner nodded, a slight hint of that naughty smile quirking the edges of his lips. “Thanks’ll do.”

  Jaden’s slight smile matched his and he jerked his head up once.

  I took that for a silent ‘thanks’ in man-speak.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, turning to Jaden and pushing down the awkwardness of Gunner. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen him anywhere else besides the GetInked2 that his presence rattled me.